🇺🇸 US employers announced 108,435 layoffs in January, up 205% from December, to the highest January total since 2009.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/the-low-hire-low-fire-economy-may-be-starting-to-shift-with-more-layoffs-but-not-more-hiring.html

🇨🇴 Why so many Colombians fight in foreign wars

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, experts estimate that at least 3,000 Colombians have passed through the country, fighting on both sides, making them one of the largest foreign contingents. Others have turned up in Sudan’s civil war or have been recruited into Mexico’s violent gangs. Perhaps 10,000 Colombians are involved in foreign conflicts, estimates Mario Urueña-Sánchez, a security expert at Rosario University in Bogotá, the capital.

Most are former soldiers. Mr Urueña-Sánchez says they work within three broad categories. Security work—guarding compounds, convoys or energy installations for private firms—is the lowest paid. Doing the same for criminal organisations is more lucrative, but riskier. A third option is to fight abroad. That can mean enlisting in a foreign army or with private contractors.

Colombia’s veterans are in demand because they have experience from decades fighting rebel groups like the FARC. Close military co-operation with the United States means many are familiar with NATO-standard weapons and communications systems. And so even though Colombians cost less than Westerners, foreign forces can deploy them quickly, notes Elizabeth Dickinson of International Crisis Group, a think-tank based in Brussels.

The supply of available fighters is growing. Colombia boasts South America’s second-largest army after Brazil’s, with more than 260,000 active troops. It expanded sharply in the early 2000s, during the most intense phase of Colombia’s campaign against guerrilla groups, and that cohort is now reaching retirement. Soldiers typically leave service after two decades of service or upon turning 45. Officers passed over for promotion are forced out, too. The result is a steady stream of trained men leaving the armed forces at a relatively young age.

Unlike other countries with large veteran populations, such as the United States, Colombia has no comprehensive veterans’ policy to support the transition into civilian life, says Mr Urueña-Sánchez. Leaving the forces often means a sudden loss of housing, health care and institutional support. Few jobs reward military skills. Pensions are modest, typically around $400 a month. Foreign contracts promise several times that.

Politics has not helped. Relations between President Gustavo Petro and the armed forces have been shaky since he took office in 2022. Colombia’s first left-wing president came to power promising to reform the security state. The fact that he is a former guerrilla has long made military figures wary of his intentions. His drive for a negotiation-led “total peace” with Colombia’s armed groups has been a frustrating failure. More than 13,000 soldiers have left the armed forces voluntarily since he became president.

Late last year the government ratified the United Nations’ anti-mercenary convention, aligning Colombia with international norms that criminalise those who recruit, finance or train mercenaries. But this will probably have little impact. Most countries that hire mercenaries have not signed the convention. Much of the trade runs through private firms that avoid the mercenary label by describing combat roles as “security” or “training”.

Meanwhile, demand for mercenaries is unlikely to ease. Conflicts linked to extractive industries—from gold to rare earths and energy—are proliferating in weak states, creating demand for muscle.

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2026/02/04/why-so-many-colombians-fight-in-foreign-wars

📎 The Economist

🇲🇽 🇨🇺 🇺🇸 Mexico faces weighty decision over Trump ultimatum on shipping oil to Cuba

The ultimatum presents a major decision point for Mexico, whose leader President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought closer ties to left-wing countries in Latin America but has so far managed to maintain a working relationship with Trump.

Mexico entered the Trump administration’s crosshairs after it became Cuba’s main source for oil after the U.S. captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and stopped shipments of Venezuelan oil to Havana.

In mid-January, Mexico temporarily halted oil shipments to Cuba, although it maintained that the decision was not made because of pressure from Trump.

Shortly afterward, Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba.

This week, though, the CEO of Pemex, Mexico’s national oil company, Victor Rodriguez, said that Mexico would maintain exports to Cuba for as long as there was available product, according to Reuters. He also said that the company supplied oil and petroleum products to Cuba worth $496 million last year.

Resuming the shipments could be a major step backward in Mexico’s relations with Trump. Last year, Sheinbaum succeeded in reaching agreements to stave off tariffs threatened by Trump. Mexico is the top trading partner of the United States.

Now, though, the Trump administration is seeking new leverage to remove the communist regime in Cuba. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said the administration would “love” to see a regime change in Cuba.

“I think we would love to see the regime there change,” Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month.

And the situation in Cuba is becoming dire. A shortage of fuel in Cuba has led to blackouts across the country, including in the capital, Havana, and has also affected food prices and transportation. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Thursday that the government would announce a plan next week to address the fuel shortages, Reuters reported.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-and-environment/4449531/mexico-faces-weighty-decision-trump-ultimatum-shipping-oil-cuba/

📎 Washington Examiner

⚓️ 🇺🇸 🌐 Approx. 100 U.S. Navy ships - 1/3 of the total battle force - are deployed on any given day (as part of normal force posture). And while the U.S. is moving assets within combatant commands, there’s been no surge or major shift in overall force posture related to Iran.

📝 TheIntelFrog:
"The US Navy typically operates on a cycle of maintenance, training and deployment with ~1/3 of the fleet dedicated to each phase at any given time."

"Outside of a near peer war breaking out, this cycle will not change. In order to support a constant presence you must maintain the equipment and train the crews."

"They are not going to surge assets outside of this cycle unless they're forced to, and the present tensions in the Middle East do not require such a shift."

📎 Ian Ellis

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇷 - Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen:

"Any agreement with the current Iranian regime is worthless, and the only solution is to change it.

If we face a threat from Iran, we will deal with it even if an agreement is reached between Tehran and Washington".

@thewarreporterr